‘Everything I believed was fabricated’
Lawyer pleads guilty to faking a divorce in order to marry clerk
A prominent lawyer and former Osgoode Hall law professor pleaded guilty to bigamy and forgery Friday in the same Newmarket courthouse where his first and only legal wife sits as a justice of the peace — and where his deception was originally discovered last year.
James Morton, 58, stood briefly in court to acknowledge that he was taking responsibility for forging a judge’s name on a fraudulent divorce order and, later, forging the signature of a court clerk on a bogus divorce certificate he used to apply for a marriage licence at Hamilton City Hall.
Within days of that application, York Regional Police were trying to untangle the messy marital web — and had advised Morton of this fact.
Despite this, Morton married Jennifer Packwood on May 12, 2018, even though he had never divorced Rhonda Shousterman, whom he married in 1990, Crown attorney Robert Scott said reading from a complicated agreed statement of facts on Friday.
Packwood, Morton’s former law clerk and the woman he conned into believing he was divorced, read from her lengthy victim impact statement Friday. In it, Packwood outlined the devastating impact of “the most traumatic event of my life,” the result of a marriage to a “man I dearly loved.”
She said she first learned of his deceit in an interview room at a police station in Hamilton, where Morton practised law. “Everything I believed was fabricated. Everything was a lie. It was a lie after lie after lie,” she said from the witness stand as Morton sat hunched over the defence table.
Nevertheless, she said she has forgiven the man she thought she had married. “I forgave him for me, so I can move forward with my life,” she said.
Morton’s licence to practise law is currently under suspension.
According to the agreed statement of facts, Packwood had worked for Morton for about 10 years and the two began an intimate relationship a few years ago. In 2016, they moved in together, leasing a house in both of their names.
In March 2017, they got engaged in Montreal and a few months later bought a house together in Hamilton that doubled as a residence and law office.
They intended to get married that October. Packwood had obtained a legal divorce from her husband “and she believed Mr. Morton was in the process of getting a divorce from his first wife so they could legally marry,” the prosecutor said.
Instead, Morton created a fake divorce order to convince Packwood he would be free to marry — but not until after their planned wedding date.
That wedding was called off and a new date picked in the spring of last year.
Aware they needed a divorce certificate, Packwood gave a legal student who worked in their office the fraudulent divorce order — which she had thought was legitimate — to deliver to the Newmarket courthouse.
The courthouse clerk, however, realized there were problems with the fake divorce order, including conflicting judge’s signatures. Nor was there any record of any divorce proceeding.
The student returned to Packwood and said he could not get the divorce certificate.
After a more thorough search of records, the Newmarket court office contacted York Regional Police and a criminal investigation began.
Investigators contacted Shousterman and she confirmed she was not divorced.
Police also contacted Morton’s law student who produced the fake divorce order and informed police about the couple’s impending nuptials.
Morton applied for a marriage licence at Hamilton City Hall on May 2, bringing with him a fraudulent divorce certificate he had created using the forged signature of the court clerk who had signed Packwood’s legitimate certificate of divorce.
On the marriage licence application form he declared he was divorced and wrote a fake court file number.
The licence was issued that day.
Six days later, police spoke to Morton to arrange a time to interview him, but he told them he was not available until after May 15.
On May 12, Morton and Packwood were married and the law student — who attended the wedding — sent police photos.
When Morton was interviewed by police on May 23, he told them that he was married to Shousterman, acknowledged problems in his marriage to her, “but he was trying to fix them; trying to work it out,” and said he had created a phoney divorce order, “but did not intend to give it to anyone.”
He also said he created the fake order while “sad, desperate, drinking,” and barely remembered doing it.
“When asked if he ever told Jennifer Packwood that he was divorced he said ‘no,’” the prosecutor said, reading from the agreed statement of facts.
“Thirty minutes into the interview, the officer placed Mr. Morton’s wedding invitation in front of him and asked, ‘What can you tell me about this?’ to which Mr. Morton answered, ‘Nothing.’” He then ended the interview a minute later and left the room.
Police charged Morton, who is a former president of the Ontario Bar Association, last June.
Scott told Ontario Court Justice Howard Borenstein he will ask for a six-month conditional sentence of house arrest.
Defence lawyer Stephen Bernstein said he believes a discharge is appropriate.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled July 24.